Pallets are commonly used to store and transport loads in many industries. Because plastic pallets are lighter and more durable than traditional wooden pallets, plastic pallets are replacing wooden pallets in many industries. Lighter plastic pallets are easier to move than wooden pallets and add less weight to a shipment of product, resulting in decreased transportation costs.
Besides the weight benefits of plastic pallets, wooden pallets have to be replaced more frequently than plastic pallets. Wooden pallets can become warped if exposed to moisture, making them difficult to use with a forklift or in a stack of load bearing pallets. Further, the nails necessary for constructing the wooden pallets can become loose, damaging product or causing personal injury.
Despite these benefits, some industries have not replaced wooden pallets with plastic pallets. Industries using conveyor systems, in particular, have not converted to plastic pallets. Wooden pallets used on conveyor systems have additional problems that could be solved by plastic pallets. Loose nails from a wooden pallet can get caught on the conveyor system, impeding product flow along the conveyor system and damaging the rollers of the conveyor system. The wooden pallets absorb liquid, making them heavier and creating cleanliness problems.
Despite these disadvantages, wooden pallets are still used with conveyorable systems because they offer more necessary advantages over current plastic pallets. Current plastic pallets are not as stiff as wooden pallets, resulting in dented plastic pallet legs, and dented pallet legs do not work well on the rollers of a conveyor system. Conventional twin-sheet plastic pallets have large openings in the deck surface, allowing product to fall into the openings, and attempts to decrease the size of the openings have required smaller support leg surfaces, which also do not work as well on conveyor rollers. Therefore, plastic pallets have not been used for applications requiring conveyor transportation of palleted goods.